Ramsay scores a hat-trick

Ramsay was a triple winner with two awards for his restaurant Maze - where the menu includes a £100 pizza - and one for himself.

The fiery Hell's Kitchen star was given the Vintage Year prize for an "exceptional" 12 months.

Oliver was named Chef of the Year for his crusade to improve school meals.The awards ceremony was held at the Floridita restaurant in central London.The judges hailed Ramsay as "the most influential, inspirational figure in the restaurant scene".

The past year has seen him open a string of new restaurants around the world and host TV shows including a US version of Hell's Kitchen and new Channel 4 series The F Word.

"His amazing year includes two London openings, new restaurants in New York and Tokyo, several TV series in both the UK and the hard-to-crack American market, a new book, DVD and newspaper columns, a clutch of London's most successful restaurants - and he still has time to run marathons.

Gordon Ramsay takes the biscuit as the most influential, inspirational figure in the restaurant scene," the judges said.

Maze is the first venue to win both Restaurant of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.

The Mayfair restaurant hit the headlines earlier this month with its £100 pizza topped with white truffle shavings. The menu also includes a peanut butter and jam sandwich pudding.

Oliver was praised by the judges for his school meals campaign and for his restaurant Fifteen, which trains unemployed young people.

"More than just a chef, Jamie Oliver is a force of nature, taking on the Government - and winning - in the ongoing struggle to improve what we eat," they said.

"He has made cooking accessible and fun for a whole generation and, by using his restaurant as a mechanism for social change, he has shown that media superstars can be principled too."

The awards, now in their seventh year, are sponsored by fashion magazine Harpers & Queen and champagne house Moet & Chandon. mMidsummer House in Cambridge was named the best restaurant outside London.